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RIAA: Ripping CDs to iPod not 'Fair Use'

dotpavan writes "EFF has this article about RIAA saying that ripping CDs and backing them up does not come under Fair use. Ars Technica also reports on this, by quoting, "The [submitted arguments in favor of granting exemptions to the DMCA] provide no arguments or legal authority that making back up copies of CDs is a noninfringing use. In addition, the submissions provide no evidence that access controls are currently preventing them from making back up copies of CDs or that they are likely to do so in the future. Myriad online downloading services are available and offer varying types of digital rights management alternatives. For example, the Apple FairPlay technology allows users to make a limited number of copies for personal use. Presumably, consumers concerned with the ability to make back up copies would choose to purchase music from a service that allowed such copying. Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices. Similar to the motion picture industry, the recording industry has faced, in online piracy, a direct attack on its ability to enjoy its copyrights.""

8 of 830 comments (clear)

  1. What a ripoff... by IcePenguin2001 · · Score: 5, Funny

    RIAA Goon 1: Okay, so we want to make a bunch more money because we're greedy bastards. How do we do it?

    RIAA Goon 2: Let's sell CDs covered with heroin! Then they'll need to keep buying more CDs to get their fix!

    G1: Although we're above the law, I don't wanna use heroin. It's expensive.

    G2: Hmm... I've got it! Let's charge them for something they ALREADY OWN!

    G1: Great Scott!! Like what?

    G2: We'll tell those suckers that ripping CDs to MP3 players (especially iPods!!) is illegal and that they'll need to buy DIGITAL (ooooh the d-word) music for their MP3 players.

    G1: Brilliant! Except, we already said that was legal when we sued Grokster.

    G2: Well, say now it isn't!! The dumb consumers bend to us!! We are above the law!!

    G1: Well, all right. Good idea, Jim. I'm gonna go now, I have $2.4 million from Britney Spears' latest album to roll around in and wipe my ass with. See ya!

    --
    I am the Penguin. The Penguin of.... of..... of..... aw, never mind.
  2. Re:Buy it again, Sam. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just print your own money to pay for them with. If anyone complains point out that "replacements are readily available (from banks) at affordable prices".

  3. Re:Buy it again, Sam. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Your own silly fault for not buying several copies of the same CD the first time around, affording you a level of redundancy!



    I feel so sorry for the poor RIAA, having to deal with you tightwads with limited storage space, and welcome the day when they can download whatever they want directly into the back of your brain and charge it to your bank account.

  4. Why does no one get it? by athlon02 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's so obvious people...

    You need to buy a copy of the song for EVERY piece of hardware. See you get the CD for your CD player. You buy the songs online to put on your MP3 player. You buy a DVD-Audio copy for your DVD drive. You buy the songs online again for your MP3 CD's for your car stereo. Oh, and lest we forget, you write a check to RIAA for the copies of the songs that are in your head. Wait, you HAVEN'T written your check yet? You should be ashamed!

  5. Re:Buy it again, Sam. by Billosaur · · Score: 5, Funny

    As we say in Joisy, if a member of the RIAA board becomes, shall we say, "damaged", replacements are available at a reasonable cost...

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  6. Re:Very affordable by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 5, Funny

    We don't need no litigation
    We don't need no rights control
    No play restriction on our iPod
    Execs leave us buyers alone

    --
    Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
  7. Re:Let me get this straight by tinkerghost · · Score: 5, Funny

    I HAVE IT
    CDs are like particle waves.
    CD's obviously have 2 mutually exclusive, but simultanious behaviours - just like photons.
    If you do the math one way, photons are a wave. Use different criteria, and poof they are particles.
    CD's are no different, we substitute law for math, liscense for wave, objects for particles, and CD's for photons.
    The result: if you do the law one way, CD's are a liscence. Use different criteria, and poof they are objects.
    WHOOT - PATENT TIME: Quantum Law.
    Now if I can only work out a theory of relativity that shows how software is relavent to patents...

  8. Re:Big surprise by uradu · · Score: 5, Funny

    > They can't have it both ways.

    Actually, musical rights are governed by a special version of a well known quantum physical law, the RIAA's Musical License-Property Duality. This law stipulates that the rights to musical works depend on the situation: if music is to be resold to a third party, the rights to it behave like a license, thus disallowing such sales. If however the music medium becomes damaged and unplayable, its rights take on the shape of those to physical goods, making medium exchanges impossible and unfair to the manufacturer. It's a very strange and fascinating area of quantum (musical IP) physics.